Escapade rolls out first batch of performers; Ben Gold tops the list

The Escapade Music Festival is back again this summer in yet another new location and promising a big lineup of the best in Electronic Dance Music including trance DJ and producer Ben Gold. The London-based Gold is the biggest of several names announced this week by organizers as the festival prepares to celebrate its fifth anniversary. The festival moves to Wesley Clover Equestrian Park on Corkstown Road, formerly the National Capital Equestrian Park.

The Escapade Music Festival is back again this summer in yet another new location and promising a big lineup of the best in Electronic Dance Music including trance DJ and producer Ben Gold.

The London-based Gold is the biggest of several names announced this week by organizers as the festival prepares to celebrate its fifth anniversary. The festival moves to Wesley Clover Equestrian Park on Corkstown Road, formerly the National Capital Equestrian Park.

Last summer, Escapade was at the RA Centre where two festival stages included such acts as Benny Benassi, Steve Angello and Wolfgang Gartner. The RA Centre site was preceded in 2012 by Ottawa Stadium. That followed a move from the grounds of the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, the original festival site.

As a way of building interest in this year’s event, organizers are releasing some of the lineup and promising more big names to come. Other DJs announced this week include Nervo, Chuckie, Tommy Trash, Makj, Fedde Le Grand and Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike who will performing on the Escapade main stage.

At Wesley Clover Park, a number of performance areas are planned. On the bill at what is known as the Tech Fusion Tent are Mark Knight, Nicole Moudaber and Pleasurekraft who will perform with headliner DJ Danny Tenaglia. At the #Goldrush Arena, in addition to Gold, you will find Beat Service, Mark Sixma/ M6 and the Norwegian DJ Orjan Nilsen spinning tunes. At the Temple of Bass stage are Zomboy, Alvin Risk, Thugli and Noisia. At The Deep End stage, headliner Lee Foss is there along with the American singer-songwriter Anabel Englund, who is the granddaughter of actress Cloris Leachman.

The festival runs June 28 and 29 at the Corkstown Road location and then will move to the parking lot at 190 George St. in the ByWard Market on Canada Day. The July 1 lineup so far includes Dada Life, Project 46, GTA, Ariyan, Domeno, Vito V, Mayro, Stefano Lasne and Frat House Music.

The festival is also running a club series on June 30: Victor Calderon is at Sotto on Dalhousie Street, Simon Patterson plays at Era on Elgin Street, Alex Metric performs at Ritual and Figure appears at Babylon.

The Escapade Music Festival has battled controversy in its five years.

The most serious occurred when Nickolas Guindon-Vachon, a co-founder of the festival, ran off with about $600,000 from the festival’s gate receipts in July 2012. He was later found in Aruba and brought back to Canada where he faced a number of criminal charges. In December, 2013, he agreed to the facts presented by the Crown regarding the July 2012 theft, including that he took more than $600,000 that didn’t belong to him.

The 28 year-old, who had already spent more than 16 months behind bars, received credit for time served and a 12-month suspended sentence and probation. He was also ordered to pay $300,000 back to his former business partners at DNA Presents, the organizers of the festival.

Last year technical problems complicated the final day of Escapade held in the ByWard Market. The opening acts on Canada Day were moved indoors after the outdoor stage was not ready. Despite the glitches, organizer Ali Shafaee called the 2013 version of the festival a success, adding that about 5,000 more people attended the event. Shafees told the Citizen that the event earned “rave reviews” from attendees and performers alike.

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